Massimo2002
Active Member
That's depressing.
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Why do most people care about money ?
- Thread starter Massimo2002
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RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
We need money if we have bills to pay. Which most adults do.
Problems come when the pursuit of money becomes our sole purpose in life.
Problems come when the pursuit of money becomes our sole purpose in life.
Massimo2002
Active Member
Why do bills exist ? Why can't those things be free ?
anotherneil
Well-Known Member
I seems like it is, but the reality is that as time goes by, jobs continue to get replaced with machines & it's just a matter of time before all jobs are replaced by machines.
Would be nice but they cost money to produce
RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
Good question. Perhaps because we don’t trust each other to give what we can, and take only what we need, from the collective commonwealth.
If we pretend that your OP title and its opening sentence have at least a tenuous relationship with one another, we get:
<paraphrase>
Why do most people care about money, given that life is so much more harder without money or with little money?
</paraphrase>
Seriously? Do you seriously have no clue why most people might care whether or not their life might be [or become] "so much more harder," especially when 'their' may well include their immediate family?
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Trading "things" gets very complicated. How many bushels of wheat equals the value of a car? How many shoes will buy a gallon of ice cream? Absolutely everything that we ever use or need would have to have a table of values ralated to every other thing. It would be impossibly complex.
Money is merely an idea -- a common unit of exchange -- that we can apply to everything. That car cost so many dollars, the gallon of ice cream a lot fewer dollars. But everything can be finally reduced to a dollar value, based on its desirability to someone else.
anotherneil
Well-Known Member
Because goods and services cannot be produced or provided without someone at some point exerting manual labor, and what you're asking for is for some people to do a huge amount of manual labor to provide to others who don't do any labor. Are you willing to do a huge amount of manual labor so others can get stuff for free?
anotherneil
Well-Known Member
Not necessarily; for instance, you can live on some isolated tropical island and be self-sufficient.
MayPeaceBeUpOnYou
Active Member
Because people have replaced god with money and convinced theist that money is more important
PureX
Veteran Member
Money is a functional representation of value. And this has been a very convenient invention.
Unfortunately, this invention has so come to dominate our social interactions that we are now completely enslaved by it. And it has become a very powerful weapon that we can and do use to exploit, enslave, and destroy each other.
They can, if you live in a primitive, égalitarian, non-specialized society, but we live in a complex, specialized society. If I need a plumber or electrician, how do I know if I have anything to barter they'd be interested in? Money can be used for all and anything, even when we live in a diverse society where needs and resources differ greatly.
I don't understand the love of money, and material goods; stuff 'n things. I don't understand the drive for status. I understand that people have this, but I can't relate. I don't have it in me. I'm not programmed like that. When I worked, my coworkers were often trying to figure out how to get more hours so they could get more money, while I was trying to figure out how to better budget, or get rid of more goods and services so I could work less hours. They didn't understand why I did that, I didn't understand why they did what they did. But, for me, 'stuff' has seldom brought happiness.
Money is necessary in the society we're in now. While I don't have a great love of 'stuff', its very uncomfortable to scrape up change for noodles, or not know how you're going to pay a housing bill. I don't think hatred of money is wise, either. Few are able to maintain happiness if they can't afford the necessities of life(food, shelter).
I think dealing with money is a balancing act. Is a resource like any other; a tool for which you can use. Obsession and identification with it leads to misery for most. Not having enough to maintain oneself may lead to misery as well.
Money is necessary in the society we're in now. While I don't have a great love of 'stuff', its very uncomfortable to scrape up change for noodles, or not know how you're going to pay a housing bill. I don't think hatred of money is wise, either. Few are able to maintain happiness if they can't afford the necessities of life(food, shelter).
I think dealing with money is a balancing act. Is a resource like any other; a tool for which you can use. Obsession and identification with it leads to misery for most. Not having enough to maintain oneself may lead to misery as well.
PureX
Veteran Member
I think the biggest drawback of the invention of money is that it creates a wall between us all as human beings. Even within the same village, or tribe, having that abstraction acting as a 'go-between' when we need to trade with each other makes it too easy for us to ignore the humanity on the other side of the trade. And once we lose sight of that humanity, we start looking at the trade as a means of getting as much for ourselves as we can, and to hell with the 'other guy'. It's "every man for himself". We are no longer thinking in terms of trading being fair and for the benefit of everyone in our community. It's all for and about serving ourselves.
Back when human beings had to look each other in the eye and trade the result of their own labor for the result of someone else, it was much more difficult to be so selfish and self-centered, and then have to trade with that man or woman again, and to see them around the village again every day. Money has enabled our communities to become so abstracted and enormous that we can lie, cheat, and steal from each other our whole lives without ever having to face the actual harm we've done to others.
Back when human beings had to look each other in the eye and trade the result of their own labor for the result of someone else, it was much more difficult to be so selfish and self-centered, and then have to trade with that man or woman again, and to see them around the village again every day. Money has enabled our communities to become so abstracted and enormous that we can lie, cheat, and steal from each other our whole lives without ever having to face the actual harm we've done to others.
anotherneil
Well-Known Member
Something else creates that wall & things like trade and money are the result. I suggest you look into Dunbar's number and gift economies: